MARANATHA. - An Aramaic phrase, used by St. Paul in the closing of 1 Corinthians (16:22). He does not translate it for his Greek addressees, which presupposes that the formula, deriving from the earliest Palestinian community, must have been in use in the liturgy (like hosanna, amen). Its meaning is today disputed. The ancients understood māran 'āthā' as "our Lord has come," which must have the sense of "he is present among us." Many moderns prefer to read māranā thā' as "our Lord, come!" in the sense of Rev. 22:20 (and of Mt. 6:10).
In the uncial codices and in the Armenian and Bohairic versions, m. is written without separation. Recent Greek codices and all editions divide it as the Pēšīṭā and the Vulgate do (μαρὰν ἀθά, maran atha).
Chrysostom (PG 61, 377), Theodoret (PG 82, 373), St. John Damascene (PG 95, 705), and Theophylact (PG 124, 793) interpreted it as: "The Lord has come." The hypothesis of G. Bickell, who was the first (in Zeitschr. f. kath. Theologie, 8 [1884], p. 403) to read māranā thā' (imperative thā', in place of the perfect 'athā'), is followed by G. Dalman, Th. Nöldeke, R. Cornely, Ph. Bachmann, H. Lietzmann, F. Gutjahr, C. J. Callan, A. Schweitzer, B. Allo, J. Huby. The translation "Our Lord comes" (J. Weiss, L. Toussaint, A. Lemonnier, etc.) is erroneous. After A. Klostermann, who interpreted it as "Our Lord is the sign ('āthā' = Heb. 'ōth)" as a formula used by Christians in giving one another the fraternal kiss, E. Hommel sees in this "sign" the first and last letter ('aleph-tau)
v. ALPHA AND OMEGA). The Didaché 10:6 also uses m. without translating it, at the end of the Eucharistic prayer with ἀμὴν; it is repeated in Const. Apost., VII, 26, 5 with ὡσαννά (ed. F. X. Funk, I, p. 414 ff.).
The certainly Palestinian origin of this liturgical formula demonstrates, against the thesis of W. Heitmüller and W. Bousset, that the application to Jesus of the title "Lord" (Aram. mārē) and "our Lord" (Aram. mārān and māranā') did not begin in the Churches of the Hellenistic world under the influence of the surrounding paganism. The formula m. appears connected with the celebration of the Eucharist, whether it affirms the presence of Jesus or expresses the desire for his return (cf. 1 Cor. 11:26, and 11:27-32 for the anathema).
Because of its proximity to anathema, m. was added to it to reinforce it, and from the 4th century onward it became a solemn formula of anathema. The Ambrosiaster (4th century) explains anathema m.: "Si quis Dominum Iesum, qui venit, non amat, abscindatur. M. enim 'Dominus venit' significat" (PL 17, 290). A sepulchral inscription from Salamis of the 4th or 5th century (Corpus inscr. Gr., IV, 9303) hurls the anathema m. So too the Third Council of Toledo (589), can. 18 (PL 84, 348), and the Fourth Council of Toledo (633), can. 75 (PL 84, 385), where anathema m. is interpreted as "perditio in adventum Domini" (as Pseudo-Isidore: PL 82, 745, and already St. Eucherius: PL 50, 815). In the Middle Ages this dreadful anathema recurs in papal, episcopal, and abbatial bulls (Ch. Du Cange, Glossarium med. et inf. lat., IV, Paris 1845, p. 270).